NPD Nov. You know you want it!

[Arwin]

In the last month I bought a pile of games, more than I've ever have in my life:

- Guitar Hero 3
- Eye of Judgment with PS Eye
- Uncharted (just got it yesterday)
- Ratchet & Clank (also yesterday, ordered them together for a discount)
- SingStar

Plus several online games (among which several EyeToy games)

I think we'll see game sales go up quickly over the next year. The first year, the budget goes to the hardware, the second year and after is for the software - you can see this very clearly in the charts also posted in this thread.

 

[Rangers]

Another interesting thing to note is that Crysis hasn't even made 100K in the US. Console versions are practically confirmed.

No crap. Look at COD4 versus Crysis..talk about a tale of two games. Crysis was almost more hyped imo, yet COD4 walked away with 2 million combined sales in it's debut month in the US alone. While Crysis did 80k. The dollar difference is astonishing.

This validates Id's console friendly direction with Rage, it means Crytek is working double time on console versions of Crysis, and it's another death blow to PC gaming. I bet a ton of people pirated Crysis too. You know it happened.

Terrible sales for UT3 as well, which as a multiplayer based game should have theoretically been somewhat immune to pirating (though I bet a lot of people pirated it and just played around with Bots, as well, overall I think UT3 just wasn't very desired).

 

[assen]

Also, the COD4 vs. Crysis/UT3 shows that people are buying content, not engine. The content creation vs. tech budget ratios for these games are very different.

 

[Rangers]

Strangely enough I think the 400k sales on both AC and COD4 PS3 sales probably mean continued PS3 third party support.

Why? Because it doesn't matter how much more the 360 version sold..it matter if the 400k sales outweighed the cost of porting to PS3, and were therefore a net financial positive, and I'm sure that answer is a yes, simple as that.

However, that is for the big games, I am not sure where mid-tier and below games fit in this equation.

If VGchartz counts,its info says PS3 sold more then 360 the last 2 weeks world wide.

It's a valid point. Consider PS3 outsold 360 by probably 150k in Japan in Nov (Media Create). Now add that to the USA sales and PS3 is only 150k behind in USA+Japan combined. The question is is PS3 selling enough extra in Europe to overcome a 150k deficit? Of course we dont know, but the answer is WW hardware sales are very likely roughly a tie right now between the two.

VGchartz Euro sales are not trustworthy, but the site is somewhat useful to illustrate broad trends, sales, and I think it's valid to say it's a tie WW or so right now. Of course dont forget PS3 is certainly coming off a very significant price drop.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I'd like to repeat here that from a software perspective, japanese sales can be practically ignored for anyone but the japanese publishers. Activision, EA and the others won't really sell any reasonable amounts of games there, so all they care about is the US + EU market.

Japan has a lot of prestige for Sony, being their homeland, and it's still very important for some iconic games - MGS, Square, Ueda's stuff and even Gran Turismo. But it doesn't really change anything for the western market...

 

[Limanima]

I don't get why people say the PS3 is lacking in sales.
Worldwide sales are the same as the XBox, and in the last weeks in the US the ration has been 3 to 2. Is that bad? In Europe it outsold the XBox in almost every country, and let's not talk about Japan.
PS3 isn't doing as bad as some people wants to make it look. Install base currently is about 2 to 1, and don't forget that the PS3 is available in Europe only since March.
Why are people comparing 1.000.000 game sellers in platforms? It makes no sense. XBox is around for 2 years, PS3 and Wii are around for less then that.
Why don't you compare PS2 1.000.000 sellers with XBox 1.000.000 sellers?


Plain silly

 

[Paul_G]

I don't get why people say the PS3 is lacking in sales.
Worldwide sales are the same as the XBox, and in the last weeks in the US the ration has been 3 to 2. Is that bad? In Europe it outsold the XBox in almost every country, and let's not talk about Japan.
PS3 isn't doing as bad as some people wants to make it look. Install base currently is about 2 to 1, and don't forget that the PS3 is available in Europe only since March.
Why are people comparing 1.000.000 game sellers in platforms? It makes no sense. XBox is around for 2 years, PS3 and Wii are around for less then that.
Why don't you compare PS2 1.000.000 sellers with XBox 1.000.000 sellers?


Plain silly

Just a few points I want to make here.

First, you may be right that WW, PS3 is keeping up with 360 sales. However, when considering that strong sales in a region is likely to result in more games from that region for the platform, would you rather have sales spread like the PS3, or clustered more strongly in one or two regions like the 360? Having a weaker, more consistent userbase may in fact be worse than a more region specific, stronger userbase.

Second, this is an NPD thread. WW numbers shouldn't matter here. What's important is that to American consumers, the PS3 isn't doing so well, which may affect some of the games American consumers like, i.e. games made in America.

Finally, don't you think complaining about PS3 and 360 sales comparisons, then saying we should instead be comparing PS2 to 360 is plain silly?

 

[Daozang]

Finally, don't you think complaining about PS3 and 360 sales comparisons, then saying we should instead be comparing PS2 to 360 is plain silly?

I think that part of his post was ironic and not a sugestion.

 

[patsu]

I'd like to repeat here that from a software perspective, japanese sales can be practically ignored for anyone but the japanese publishers. Activision, EA and the others won't really sell any reasonable amounts of games there, so all they care about is the US + EU market.

Japan has a lot of prestige for Sony, being their homeland, and it's still very important for some iconic games - MGS, Square, Ueda's stuff and even Gran Turismo. But it doesn't really change anything for the western market...

Well... someday someone will crack it. I'm curious to see if LBP can sell in Japan, or some US + Japanese companies partnership.

 

[Betanumerical]

I think that's nonsense... These systems on overall are way too close to each other for any other than very biased granny to tell them apart, maybe I'll get back on this after I have personally seen one such game, I'm not holding my breath though as even the upcoming big hitters like MGS 4 or GT5 prologue haven't really convinced me in the graphical front.

Not a dig at any console.

But I have yet see a another console pull off what PD did with the PS3, GT:5 is many times more impressive then dare I say any other racing game out there, yep some games beat it areas (PGR environments) for a example, but there isn't a single game I have seen that pulls off what they did.

 

[Paul_G]

I think that part of his post was ironic and not a sugestion.

Yeah you're right i read it too fast. That said, I don't think there is anything wrong with comparing platforms when you align them by launch date, especially when both platforms launched at about the same time of year. In theory if PS3 sales were competitive, we should be seeing a similar number of milliion sellers.

 

[assen]

Not a dig at any console.

But I have yet see a another console pull off what PD did with the PS3, GT:5 is many times more impressive then dare I say any other racing game out there, yep some games beat it areas (PGR environments) for a example, but there isn't a single game I have seen that pulls off what they did.

You know the one where a billionaire hired a team of physicists to devise a system for predicting horse race outcomes? Two years of busy work later they had a system that worked for perfectly rigid spherical horses in vacuum.

I just played the Burnout demo. GT5 movies by comparison look sterile, like racing in a test tube. Racing of perfectly rigid spherical cars in vacuum.

Yeah you're right i read it too fast. That said, I don't think there is anything wrong with comparing platforms when you align them by launch date, especially when both platforms launched at about the same time of year. In theory if PS3 sales were competitive, we should be seeing a similar number of milliion sellers.

Launch aligned comparisons would make sense, if publishers could afford to delay a PS3 version full 12 months after the 360 version to match the delayed market share growth.

 

[Daozang]

I just played the Burnout demo. GT5 movies by comparison look sterile, like racing in a test tube. Racing of perfectly rigid spherical cars in vacuum.

Does the eye of the beholder fit anywere in that vacuum?:smile:

 

[Paul_G]

Launch aligned comparisons would make sense, if publishers could afford to delay a PS3 version full 12 months after the 360 version to match the delayed market share growth.

Does it matter though? Higher 360 sales are proof of the benefits of getting in there first, as much as they're proof of anything. Ultimately this thread is about sales, and simply put, the PS3s aren't as good as the 360s. Games publishers being told 'well, you launched 12 months later, you're doing OK considering' isn't going to make them feel any better. As someone else said a couple of pages back what matters is the money, plain and simple, and 360 is just making more of it.

 

[expletive]

Not a dig at any console.

But I have yet see a another console pull off what PD did with the PS3, GT:5 is many times more impressive then dare I say any other racing game out there, yep some games beat it areas (PGR environments) for a example, but there isn't a single game I have seen that pulls off what they did.

GT4 was equally freakish on the PS2 compared to games on the original xbox though, and it was widely accepted the Xbox had superior hardware. PD are possibly the best in the world at what they do, and thats about the only conclusion i think we can draw from GT4/5.

 

[Limanima]

I think that's nonsense... These systems on overall are way too close to each other for any other than very biased granny to tell them apart, maybe I'll get back on this after I have personally seen one such game, I'm not holding my breath though as even the upcoming big hitters like MGS 4 or GT5 prologue haven't really convinced me in the graphical front.

GT5P didn't convinced you graphically? wow... I wonder what games do convince you... Have you really seen movies of it? The Fuji Speedway for instance? I find that very impressive, almost real...

 

[iceberg187]

GT4 was equally freakish on the PS2 compared to games on the original xbox though, and it was widely accepted the Xbox had superior hardware. PD are possibly the best in the world at what they do, and thats about the only conclusion i think we can draw from GT4/5.

I would like for GT5 to have damage models for their cars before anyone makes a true comparison. In any event, the difference from Forza to Gran Turismo largely falls on resources. GT cars are modeled in-house while Forza's are outscourced. No one that is a first party for Microsoft, outside of Rare, can be accused to being technical masters. American developers seem to be more about shaders and such while Japanese developers look to throw as much geometry as possible on the screen. Rare has an engine that is totally built on the 360, Banjo looks to be the first to use it. Only then would we see what the console can really do.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

You know the one where a billionaire hired a team of physicists to devise a system for predicting horse race outcomes? Two years of busy work later they had a system that worked for perfectly rigid spherical horses in vacuum.

I just played the Burnout demo. GT5 movies by comparison look sterile, like racing in a test tube. Racing of perfectly rigid spherical cars in vacuum.

I agree with this analogy that's how I see it too.

GT5P didn't convinced you graphically? wow... I wonder what games do convince you... Have you really seen movies of it? The Fuji Speedway for instance? I find that very impressive, almost real...

Well I have the demo on my PS3 and I have played it a lot and also I have watched some videos of it too and no I didn't mean that it's not good graphically, but nothing in it makes me believe that those same PD guys with similar budget couldn't replicate the same visuals on the X360 to a level that is hard for me to tell them apart, let alone some granny...

Many games impress me graphically atleast a little bit.

 

[Limanima]

I agree with this analogy that's how I see it too.
Well I have the demo on my PS3 and I have played it a lot and also I have watched some videos of it too and no I didn't mean that it's not good graphically, but nothing in it makes me believe that those same PD guys with similar budget couldn't replicate the same visuals on the X360 to a level that is hard for me to tell them apart, let alone some granny...
Many games impress me graphically atleast a little bit.

This is starting to go off topic.
I never said the XBox couldn't render that. Actually I think both consoles are very similar graphically speaking. But it still is impressive. As for the driving, the GT series are supposed to be "the real driving simulator". The cars behave as in real life. That's why it has that gameplay, much different from Burnout for instance, or any other racing game.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

I would like for GT5 to have damage models for their cars before anyone makes a true comparison. In any event, the difference from Forza to Gran Turismo largely falls on resources. GT cars are modeled in-house while Forza's are outscourced. No one that is a first party for Microsoft, outside of Rare, can be accused to being technical masters. American developers seem to be more about shaders and such while Japanese developers look to throw as much geometry as possible on the screen. Rare has an engine that is totally built on the 360, Banjo looks to be the first to use it. Only then would we see what the console can really do.

If american devs really cared more about the shaders the cars would have looked better because shaders (car materials) and ofcourse lighting are alot more important for a realistic looking game than the amount of poly's you can trow in. PD nails the lighting and shaders, thats why GT4 and 5 look so good, not because they have uber high poly models.